In a game of basketball, one good run can give a team a huge advantage, no matter how early it happens.

When the Xaverian Hawks put together an early 19-3 scoring surge against Brockton in the second game of the 36th annual Rotary Holiday Tournament on Monday night at Brockton High School, it appeared as if they may have been on their way to handing the Boxers their first loss of the young season.

The game, however, proved to be a seesaw battle as Brockton put together a few big runs of its own and the Hawks came back with some more of theirs. The game actually proved to be a close one despite the large runs as the Boxers earned the victory by a deceptive 74-63 score.

“It was a very funny game that way,” said Brockton head coach Bob Boen. “It seemed like, at least twice, like we got ahead and we just relaxed. We thought the game was ours early in the game and right at the end of the first quarter; start of the second quarter we got way ahead. And I think our team kind of takes it easy and we got behind by like eight points. Then in the second half we came out again, firing on all cylinders, and then we relaxed and they got back in the game. Yeah, it was very much a game of runs.”

It was actually Brockton that got the first big run, 12-0, early in the game to seemingly take control. That was when Xaverian, however, outscored the Boxers 19-3 over the last part of the first quarter and the beginning of the second. The Hawks were able to exploit a poor shooting performance by Brockton and rode the excellent rebounding of Michael Varirchione to build their lead. Even when the Boxers adjusted and play better toward the end of the game, it was still their poor shooting that allowed Xaverian to stay in the contest.

“We did not shoot the ball well at all,” Boen said. “We had a very poor shooting night. I came out at halftime and told them in the second half we have to shoot better. ‘We will shoot better,’ I said, ‘and that’s not our type of shooting.’ And we still didn’t shoot well in the second half. We shot very poorly tonight.

“We’re not a very big team this year,” said Boen about the Boxers’ troubles on the offensive boards. “I’m starting a center this year, Traece Maklin, that’s probably 6-foot, 6-1. The other center, Jahleel Moise, is about 6-2. The only big guy I’ve got is the big sophomore (Sayvonn Houston), who’s playing JV most of the time. So we’re not really big this year.”

Brockton made up for its poor shooting, though, with quickness. When the game was on the line in the fourth quarter, the Boxers were able to force turnovers and get fast-break baskets while tiring out the Xaverian players. Leonardo Medina was the key to the Boxers’ fourth-quarter effort, coming up with several big steals and scoring a team-high 19 points in total, with most of them coming in the later part of the game.

“We did have some key steals as well as some baskets on layups,” Boen said. “That was key tonight, because in that half-court offense they really had us confused.”

“(Medina) had another great game tonight, stealing the ball from the other team and then taking it to the basket. Leo probably won us the game by those steals. He bothered Xaverian a lot. Other than that, they did a pretty good job getting it up court against us, but Leo had quite a few big plays.”

Medina’s play, coupled with the play of a couple of other Boxer players such as Macklin (10 points and several big offensive rebounds) and Shane Sims (12 points, including some key shots) helped Brockton outscore the Hawks, 21-10, in the third quarter to regain the lead and pull away in the fourth to ensure the victory.

The Boxers will play host to Stoughton tonight at 7:45 in the tournament’s championship game. Stoughton defeated Brighton, 66-59, in the other semifinal.

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